The United States Army will be the first to test a system by Sierra Energy to turn waste — whether banana peels, used syringes, old iPods, even raw sewage — into fuel. See more here: Trash Into Gas, Efficiently? An Army Test May Tell ; ;Related ArticlesThe Texas Tribune: Businesses Back Greenhouse Gas Emissions LawThe Energy Rush: Foreseeing Trouble in Exporting Natural GasPlan to Ban Oil Drilling in Amazon Is Dropped ;
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A record-breaking hole in the ozone layer in September 2000.
It’s like Lord Voldemort joining forces with The Penguin.
Two of the globe’s most epic environmental threats appear to be ganging up on us: The hole in the ozone layer could be hastening global warming.
Yes, the hole in the ozone layer. It still exists, though it has been getting smaller because the world rightly panicked and began phasing out the use of CFCs in the 1980s. It was previously thought that the hole was helping to slow down global warming, but new research published in Geophysical Research Letters suggests the opposite. From Nature:
The team’s models predicted a shift in the southern-hemisphere jet stream — the high-altitude air currents flowing around Antarctica — as a result of ozone depletion. This produced a change in the cloud distribution, with clouds moving towards the South Pole, where they are less effective at reflecting solar radiation. …
The extra net energy absorbed by the Earth would be 0.25 watts per square metre, or roughly a tenth of the greenhouse effect attributed to CO2, [says Kevin Grise, the study’s lead author and an atmospheric scientist at Columbia University]. The result could be a small but non-negligible contribution to global temperature rise.
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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No, this is not the surface of the sun. But it’s close. Inciweb How intense are the wildfires blazing in Oregon and California? Let’s answer that question with a photo, snapped in late July by Marvin Vetter of the Oregon Department of Forestry, showing a dang-blasted “firenado” swirling above a sea of burning trees: To keep reading, click here. Original source: Choking Clouds of Wildfire Smoke Sprawl Over Southern Oregon Related Articles Tesla Motors Earns $26 Million in the 2nd Quarter—Thanks to the Government Is Keystone XL a Distraction From More Important Climate Fights? Keystone Light: The Keystone XL Alternative You’ve Never Heard of Is Probably Going to Be Built
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Choking Clouds of Wildfire Smoke Sprawl Over Southern Oregon
About 298,000 hybrids, or cars that run on batteries and gasoline, have been sold this year while only 36,000 battery-powered vehicles have sold. Continued here: A Hankering for Hybrids ; ;Related ArticlesMilestone Claimed in Creating Fuel From WasteOp-Ed Contributors: A Republican Case for Climate ActionDot Earth Blog: With Arrests, Signs of Justice in Slaying of Costa Rican Turtle Guardian ;
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Now that’s some bad air quality.
Residents of northern China got free coal from the government during winters from 1950 to 1980, but it turns out that the coal actually came at a heavy price: shorter lifespans.
The Chinese government’s Huai River policy provided coal free of charge to everybody living north of Huai River, which cleaves China in two. As residents of northern China, the colder part of the country, huddled around fuel burners inside their homes, the air outside was growing black with particular matter. Breathing that air robbed northern residents of an average of 5.5 years of their lives compared with their southern compatriots.
That’s the stark finding of a new comparison of historical pollution levels and mortality data north and south of the Huai River. The study results, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide a stark illustration of the deathly consequences of coal burning.
Air quality across much of China is famously awful, largely the result of coal burning. Starting in 1950, when the free-coal program began, the air in northern China grew dirtier than the air in the southern part of the country. The difference persists today, in part because many of the old fuel burners remain in use. And though the supply of free coal long ago dried up, residents of the north can purchase coal that’s subsidized by the government.
Air pollution is linked to everything from lung and heart disease to infant mortality to diabetes to acne. But for this study, the scientists focused on deaths during the 1990s caused by heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and respiratory illnesses.
By studying official data of some 500,000 deaths in China from 1991 to 2000, researchers from China, Israel, and Massachusetts found a five-year drop in lifespans just north of the river compared with just south of it. This drop was attributed to the differences in air quality triggered by the Huai River policy.
Click to embiggen.
“To the north of the Huai River, particulate concentrations are … 55% higher, and life expectancies are 5.5 [years] lower, almost entirely due to an increased incidence of cardiorespiratory mortality causes,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “The estimates suggest that the 500 million residents of Northern China during the 1990s experienced a loss of more than 2.5 billion life years owing to the Huai River policy.”
With coal use continuing to grow worldwide, the researchers hope their findings will help guide policy makers. From National Geographic news:
Drawing on what they said was the most comprehensive data set ever compiled in the developing world, the researchers aimed to provide a yardstick that public policymakers can use as they consider the implications of decisions now being made on energy. The findings come at a time when coal is on track to surpass oil as the world’s top energy source and 2.8 billion people rely on wood, crop waste, dung, and other biomass to cook and heat their homes.
“We can now say with more confidence that long-run exposure to pollution, especially particulates, has dramatic consequences for life expectancy,” said Michael Greenstone, economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who collaborated with researchers in China and Israel. “To be able to say with some precision what the health costs are, and what the loss of life expectancy is, puts a finer point on the importance of finding policies that balance growth with environmental quality.”
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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Coal-burning slashed lifespans by five years in China, study finds
The latest knockoff to be produced in China is the carbon credit.
On Tuesday, the nation’s first carbon-trading program was launched in Shenzhen. Under the small pilot project, 635 companies responsible for 38 percent of the city’s carbon pollution began trading emission allowances. The program is scheduled to be expanded to six other areas by next year and then to the whole country before 2020. It will help China meet a national carbon cap that’s expected to be imposed by 2016.
China’s carbon-trading plans are modeled on similar programs underway in Europe, Australia, California, New England, and other large economies. In fact, carbon trading seems to be catching on with governments everywhere — except the United States.
Though the Chinese program is starting off small, it’s expected to have big ramifications. From Reuters:
While the exchange in the southern city of Shenzhen will not immediately lead to a big cut in China’s emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gas, now the world’s highest, it does still represent a statement of intent by Beijing, campaigners said.
“This is just a baby step when you look at the total quantity of emissions, but it enables China to establish institutions for carbon controls for the first time,” said Li Yan, head of environmental group Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign in China.
This is one Chinese knockoff that environmentalists and indeed the whole world can welcome.
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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San Onofre nuclear plant — now just a blight on the seashore.
Southern California Edison is officially giving up on the San Onofre nuclear power plant — and it’s about time. When workers have to resort to masking tape and broomsticks to patch up a leaky pipe, you know things are bad. And that’s just one of many reasons why the name of the plant is usually preceded by the word “troubled.”
Speaking of which, from CBS News:
The troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday.
Operator Southern California Edison said in a statement it will retire the twin reactors because of uncertainty about the future of the plant, which faced a tangle of regulatory hurdles, investigations and mounting political opposition. With the reactors idle, the company has spent more than $500 million on repairs and replacement power.
The coastal plant near San Clemente once supplied power to about 1.4 million homes in Southern California but has been shuttered since January 2012 when a tube in its newly replaced steam generators leaked a small amount of radioactive steam, leading to the discovery that the tubes were wearing down at an unusual rate.
That’s a different leak than the one patched with masking tape, just so you know.
Anti-nuclear activists are psyched. “The people of California now have the opportunity to move away from the failed promise of dirty and dangerous nuclear power and replace it with the safe and clean energy provided by the sun and the wind,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S.
This leaves just one operating nuke plant in California — Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo. Last year it was knocked offline by a jellyfish-like sea critter, but most of the time there’s nothing to worry about — other than the fact that the plant sits near two active earthquake faults.
Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.
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Scientists may be split on whether organic foods are better for human health. But a new study published in PLOS ONE presents evidence that organic foods help you live longer and make more babies — if you’re a fruit fly.
T. ChapmanMaybe organic food just puts flies in the mood?
Researchers at Southern Methodist University fed fruit flies extracts of organic or conventional versions of bananas, potatoes, raisins, or soybeans from a Whole Foods in Texas. (Unlike those organic-loving rats, the flies didn’t get to choose their foods.)
“Flies were then subjected to a variety of tests designed to assess overall fly health.” The results? “Flies raised on diets made from organically grown produce had greater fertility and longevity,” according to the study.
Maybe this explains why buzzing fruit flies plague your indoor compost bin (or, for that matter, the Whole Foods sample trays)? Best break out the organic apple cider vinegar!
Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for
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Where now there are two nuclear reactors, soon there will be four.
Advocates of building a low-carbon economy with nuclear power can rejoice: Construction is underway to build America’s first new nuclear reactors in 30 years.
But any residents of Waynsboro, Ga., who are concerned about the threat of radiation leaks or meltdown at the nearby nuclear plant will soon have twice as much reason to worry.
Plant Vogtle, where two nuclear reactors have operated since the late 1980s, is expanding. Two new reactors are scheduled to be up and running by 2018 — assuming there are no more delays, which would be an unwise assumption. The project is backed by an $8.3 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration.
During a 41-hour construction spree last week, a six-inch deep concrete foundation measuring 250 feet by 160 feet was laid beneath the future site of Plant Vogtle Unit 3. “We are very proud of this accomplishment,” Georgia Power Nuclear Development Executive Vice President Buzz Miller said in a press release.
The plant was originally envisioned as a four-reactor facility, and opponents of the project are not thrilled to see this old vision become a modern reality. From the website of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which opposes the project:
Plant Vogtle was one of the last and most costly nuclear plants built in the country. Original estimates for four reactors were $660 million. Eventually, only two reactors were built, costing more than $8 billion, resulting at the time in the largest rate hike in Georgia. Unfortunately, Georgia utilities are venturing down this costly and risky path again.
Concerns about costs are reemerging because utility company Southern Co. announced last month that construction had been delayed by a year and that costs were growing, prompting it to seek reimbursement from the state’s electricity customers. From the AP:
The Atlanta-based utility formally asked regulators to raise its budget to build two more nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle (VOH’-gohl) by about $737 million to roughly $6.85 billion. Additional costs are possible. Companies designing and building the plant have sued the utility seeking $425 million for unexpected project costs, though the utility has filed its own suit and denies responsibility for those expenses. …
Delays have pushed back the timeline for completing the two reactors from April 2016 and April 2017 to late 2017 and 2018. Southern Co. said it was trying to determine whether the pace can be quickened.
Gregory Jaczko, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was the only member of the five-person commission to vote against approving the Vogtle plant last year. “I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima never happened,” Jaczko said at the time of the vote. But his colleagues disagreed, and now here we are.
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“Say, Jack, what if we used NEPA to slow down them there rising seas?”
Industries that warm the globe, take note: It might be time to freak out.
The Obama administration will soon start requiring federal agencies to consider climate change when analyzing the environmental impacts of major projects that need federal approval. This would include pipelines, highways, coal and natural-gas export facilities, and even new logging roads, if they’re on public land or subject to federal oversight.
That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that Obama will be issuing new guidance under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the federal government to conduct environmental impact assessments for significant projects.
The change wouldn’t mean that any project affecting the climate would be nixed, but industry lobbyists worry it could lead to more delays and lawsuits.
The move is being welcomed by environmentalists. From Bloomberg:
“Agencies do a pretty poor job of looking at climate change impacts,” Rebecca Judd, a legislative counsel at the environmental legal group Earthjustice in Washington. “A thorough guidance would help alleviate that.”
Industry reps are less enthusiastic:
“It’s got us very freaked out,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based group that represents 11,000 companies such as Exxon-Mobil Corp. and Southern Co. The standards, which constitute guidance for agencies and not new regulations, are set to be issued in the coming weeks, according to lawyers briefed by administration officials.
Well, with the weather quickly turning freaky, maybe some freakouts are long overdue.
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Obama to require climate assessments for big projects like highways and pipelines
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